The Interview
by greengirl82
Summary: The BAU has The Joker in custody forcing Emily and Hotch to interview him. *Nominated for a 2011 Profiler's Choice Criminal Minds Award for best crossover.


**The Interview**

Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds, that's CBS. I also don't own The Dark Knight, that's DC Comics and Christopher Nolan.

Summary: The Joker broke out of Gotham Police custody and was caught by the BAU. Emily's forced to interview him with Hotch before he's sent to total isolation in maximum prison.

Timeline: Present time on CM, and T.D.K. is set in present time.

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><p>Herman Hesse said, "When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane."<p>

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><p>The Joker sat in the sterile interrogation room handcuffed to the table, looking at the two-way mirror staring at her, but of course he couldn't see her.<p>

Emily and JJ stared through the mirror at the man with white clown paint on his face and both women shuddered when they heard his maniacal laugh.

"You going to come in to talk to me? Agents?" the Joker said staring at his own reflection in the mirror.

"Where the hell is Hotch?" Emily asked JJ.

"He said he was coming." JJ told the brunette feeling sympathy for the brunette.

Hotch threw water on his face, feeling sick to his stomach at the sight of the clown.

Hotch dried his face and when he thought back on The Joker he felt like he was dealing with Foyet again.

_'He is not Foyet,'_ Hotch repeated to himself _'He is not Foyet.'_

Reid walked into the bathroom and said "They're ready to start the interview, Hotch."

Hotch threw the paper towel away, exhaling "All right."

Dave and Morgan walked up to the two women staring at The Joker who stared right back at the mirror.

"God this guy's a freak," Morgan said "I can't believe he escaped police custody."

"Well to be fair, Morgan," Dave said "The Gotham police had their hands full trying to capture Batman who just murdered that district attorney Harvey Dent."

"Plus The Joker's responsible for the death of ADA Dawes, a judge and a Commissioner." Emily added.

Emily was unable to take her eyes off the clown who smirked at the mirror.

"Why can't we just ship this guy off to Guantanamo Bay?" JJ asked "He used terrorist methods for his crimes, he's a multiple murder, and kidnapper. He blew up a hospital for crying out loud."

"That's what we'll find out," Hotch said approaching the group followed by Reid. "Ready Emily?"

"Let's just get this over with." Emily muttered leading the way to enter interrogation.

"Why does it have to be her?" Morgan asked feeling protective of his brunette friend.

"Because Joker responded to her," Dave observed standing closer to the mirror seeing the two best profiler's enter the room.

The Joker looked over to see the two BAU agents entered, his caked white clown face smiled at Emily, "Well hello, beautiful."

Emily schooled her face to show no emotions but inside her skin was crawling.

"So glad to see you drop in," the Joker said then turned his attention to Hotch "Agent Hotchner."

Emily and Hotch took the seat across from The Joker.

"What is your name?" Emily asked the Joker keeping herself composed.

"Names are not important, only action," the Joker said giggling at confusing the two agents.

"Actions?" Hotch repeated "Okay. What actions led you to commit multiple murders?"

The Joker giggled at that, his chains rattling loudly, "I got bored ripping off mobsters and Batman wouldn't play fair."

"Batman?" Emily repeated "You tried to get Batman to reveal his identity and when that didn't work, you kidnapped Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes. Why?"

The Joker put on a look of innocent "I never laid a finger on them."

Hotch slammed his hand down on the table and opened the folder showing the exploding buildings that housed Dawes and Dent.

"You murdered a judge, a Commissioner, blew up a hospital, kidnapped several people from that hospital, hijacked and kidnapped a container of innocent citizens and felons," Emily said "Just to get Batman to reveal his identity."

The Joker looked at Emily bored, "You sound like a broken record. You know if you put some curls in your hair, you'd look just like Rachel Dawes."

Hotch gave the insane clown a glare at that comment, but continued on, "Getting back to the case at hand..."

The Joker leaned in whispering, "You look just like my father. You wanna know how I got these scars?"

"I'm not interested in how you got your scars, but judging by your tone of voice and body language I'd say they were self-inflicted." Hotch answered in a bored tone.

The Joker looked over at Emily, licking his lips "I've got this Father who said I need to smile more... He liked to hit me for laughs, and one day he grabs me. Sticks a knife in my mouth and said, 'You oughta smile boy. I'll put a smile on your face that the world will remember.' He looked over at me after it was done and said 'Why so serious?"

"Well that's a lie, right there," Emily said folding her hands across her chest.

The Joker sat back and laughed.

"You're a lot more fun here than those buffoon cops in Gotham City," the Joker said laughing as he jumped up in his seat.

"This guy is certifiable," Dave said to JJ, Reid and Morgan who all observed the interview in horror.

"Notice his body language?" Reid commented, watching the interaction of the clown and the agents, "He's trying to gauge reactions out of Hotch and Emily."

"He's an attention seeking narcissist," Morgan agreed "He'll accept any form of attention from them, good or bad."

"Shh!" JJ hissed, turning back to the mirror to listen to Hotch and Emily.

* * *

><p>"Why did you crash the fundraiser at Bruce Wayne's manor?" Hotch asked "You know you would have gotten caught."<p>

The Joker ran his hand through his messy hair "I was upset that I wasn't invited."

Emily and Hotch exchanged a look only to hear the cackled laughter from the Joker as he moved about wildly.

"You physically attacked Batman and several of Mr. Wayne's guest," Hotch added.

"And threw Ms. Dawes out the window," Emily added feeling bad for the young ADA's life cut short.

"What can I say?" the Joker laughed, "I fell for her or rather she fell for me."

"Are you not going to answer any questions seriously?" Emily asked, annoyed by the mad man's lack of participation.

The Joker laughed, "I wanted to see what Batman would do. And he didn't disappoint, he let five people die."

"But Harvey Dent said he was Batman," Emily said looking over at Hotch "But he wasn't because Batman saved him from your attack on the road."

"Batman let him take his place," the Joker said, winking at her "Even to a guy like me that's cold."

"Why'd you do it?" Emily asked taking the lead "Why'd you target Batman other then his not revealing his true identity?"

"The mobsters wanted him gone, to stop ruining their business," he said "To get back to the way things were."

"But?" Emily asked "You wanted him gone too, to kill him?"

"Wanted him gone?" the clown shook his head "No, no, no. What would I have done without him, go back to ripping off mobsters? He's just too much fun."

"But Batman wanted you out of his city just like the cops did." Hotch said.

"He thought he could be like the cops and clean cut D.A. Talked like he was one of them but he's not." The Joker emphasized "They only want him to clean up the city than they turned their backs on him. Blamed him for Dent's death, chasing after him now. Hunting him. I warned him."

"Warned him?" Emily asked "Didn't he kill Harvey Dent?"

"That my dear, I won't comment on." the Joker clucked his tongue, "And now I'm done talking."

Emily and Hotch watched the Joker fold his arms, looking away from them, shutting them out. Ignoring their presence.

* * *

><p>Dave turned around to see Commissioner Jim Gordon come down the hall escorted by Anderson and Strauss.<p>

Gordon stood by the window looking in at The Joker, he sighed and said "That's him. That's The Joker."

"Thank you for coming all this way to identify him, Commissioner." Strauss said "And thank you for allowing us to take over the case."

"Did he say anything useful?" Gordon said watching Hotch and Emily exit the room coming over to the team.

"No, he talked about Batman and denied responsibility for the crimes he committed in Gotham." Reid said looking at the clown.

"My advice to you since your taking custody of him is to keep him in total isolation do not let anyone near him." Gordon said "He's very persuasive in luring people."

Strauss looked in at the clown alone in the room and said "We got clearance from a Judge to mark him as a person unknown so he could be sent to maximum security prison in total isolation. No one will be alone with him for a total extent of time."

Commissioner Gordon looked relieved at that thought and said "Thank you. Thank you all for catching him before he caused anymore trouble."

Hotch shook Gordon's hand and said "We're sorry for all the trouble he caused Gotham, Commissioner."

"Thank you, Agent Hotchner." Gordon said and shook Emily's hand smiling at her.

Emily instantly liked this man, she could tell he was an honest man.

"I'll go now." Gordon said walking out Emily followed him out.

"Commissioner?" Emily said once they were alone "I believe that the Batman is innocent of Dent's death."

Gordon looked up at her surprised, and said "Excuse me?"

Emily said "The Joker all he did was talk about Batman and before he shut himself up he said that he warned Batman that once he cleaned up Gotham that they'd turn their backs on them, and said they'd blame him for Dent's death."

Gordon shook his head and said "Agent Prentiss. Don't get involved."

"Excuse me, sir?" Emily said "But..."

He leaned in and said "I only tell you this because you remind me of someone important to Batman. The Joker did a really bad number on Dent with Rachel's death. And Dent he couldn't handle it and fell..."

"Fell?" Emily repeated "You mean he..."

Gordon looked her in the eye and knew she got it.

"Yes. Batman wants to protect what was good about Harvey Dent so he's taking the blame." Gordon said "Protecting what Rachel and Harvey died for."

Emily bit her lip and nodded "I get it."

Gordon smiled sadly at her "Thank you Agent Prentiss. The Batman thanks you too."

Emily watched Commissioner Gordon walk away and felt bad for the man, having to hunt someone he believed in.

Walking back into the BAU, Emily looked up at the coffee shop across the street and saw that millionaire heir Bruce Wayne sitting at a table drinking a coffee.

_'Wonder what he's doing all the way here?'_ Emily thought and saw him smile at her.

Emily walked back to her team and saw Hotch walking into the bullpen smiling at her.

Emily saw several agents getting ready to drag The Joker bound and cuffed like he was Hannibal Lecter through the building to maximum security prison.

_'At least the world is safe for now.'_ Emily thought sitting at her desk looking up at Hotch in his office.

_'Hotch is like Batman, keeping the world safe from the big bad.'_ Emily thought smiling at that idea.

* * *

><p>Albert Einstein said "Reality is an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."<p>

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><p><strong>The End<strong>


End file.
